Ottercombe Bay – Part Two: Gin and Trouble

Published by Avon an imprint of

HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street,

London, SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Publishers 2018

Copyright © Bella Osborne 2018

Cover illustration © Kim Leo

Cover design © Head Design 2018

Bella Osborne asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008258153

Ebook Edition © February 2018 ISBN: 9780008258122

Version 2018-05-04

For my mum – thank you.

Table of Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Acknowledgements

Keep Reading …

About the Author

Also by Bella Osborne

About the Publisher

Daisy whipped open the bedroom curtains, almost expecting to see someone standing there, but all she saw was the strip of front garden and her old motorbike. What had happened? She scanned the bedside cabinet again, still in disbelief that her precious locket could have been taken. Daisy ran upstairs.

‘Um, Aunt Coral, are you awake?’ she asked hesitantly at her aunt’s bedroom door.

‘Yes, love,’ came the answer from the bathroom behind her making her jump.

‘Have you seen my locket?’ Daisy asked the bathroom door.

‘The book-shaped one you always wear?’

‘Yes,’ Daisy said, rolling her hands over and over in front of her as if trying to hurry Aunt Coral along.

‘Then yes I’ve seen it.’

Daisy felt elated as the relief washed over her. Aunt Coral opened the bathroom door and Daisy was tempted to hug her but she was brushing her teeth.

‘Where is it?’

Aunt Coral looked blank. ‘Last time I saw it you were wearing it. Have you mislaid it?’

‘No,’ said Daisy shaking her head and looking desolate. The awful sense of loss reappeared immediately gripping her insides. ‘I put it on the bedside cabinet last night but this morning it’s not there. I think it’s been stolen.’

Jason arrived quickly with a colleague carrying what looked like a large briefcase. ‘Scene of crime officer,’ he explained. ‘We’ll check the whole house for any fingerprints, residue or material fragments.’

The SOCO coughed behind him. ‘Actually I’m just going to dust around the window frame for prints. It’s not a murder enquiry. Can you show me where to go?’

‘Of course, officer,’ said Aunt Coral, leading the way. ‘I’m afraid they’ve made quite a mess of the room,’ she said, opening the door and revealing the room in a total state of disarray. Daisy opened her mouth to speak, but paused. Was there any benefit in owning up to the fact she’d created the mess? It wasn’t going to make any difference to what had been stolen. Perhaps she’d tell Jason on the quiet later.

Jason strode in putting on latex gloves, making them ping at the cuffs. ‘My word, they have roughed the place up. What could they have been looking for?’ he said, picking up a discarded bra on his pencil and placing it on the unmade bed. Daisy cringed. Tidying up before they arrived would have been a good move, but she’d barely had time to get washed and dressed before they were banging on the front door. She guessed there wasn’t a lot of criminal activity in Ottercombe Bay. Jason whipped out his notebook and started scribbling. ‘And you were in here at the time? I guess they woke you up?’ He waved his pencil at the mess. Daisy bit her lip and gave a brief shake of her head. ‘Interesting,’ said Jason, continuing to scribble. ‘Did you see anyone? Hear anything?’ Daisy shook her head again. Perhaps honesty would have been the best policy, she thought. ‘Where were the items taken from exactly?’

‘On here,’ said Daisy, pointing at the bedside cabinet.

Jason stuck his head out of the window. ‘They must have taken them as a consolation prize when they didn’t find what they came for. If it was purely opportunist they could have just reached through the window and taken them off the cabinet as it’s right under the window.’

He was very good, thought Daisy, and she opened her mouth to explain but Aunt Coral was already speaking. ‘Would you like a coffee, boys?’ she asked.